Madison Bumgarner vs. Noah Syndergaard is one for the ages
NEW YORK — There are a million reasons to fall in love with Wednesday's wild-card shootout at Citi Field, a million different story lines from both dugouts. Pick one, pick them all, the net effect is still the same — it’s October baseball boiled down to nine innings. There’ll be no safe haven for your blood pressure.
By its very nature the wild-card game is a guarantee for drama, but this one comes straight out of the history books because of the pitching matchup. Noah Syndergaard against Madison Bumgarner is ace against ace, power fastball against legendary postseason warrior, as close to Koufax versus Marichal as you’ll get in today’s over-hyped universe.
When Syndergaard says, “this is a dream come true” he’s talking about all of it: game, setting and Bumgarner. Especially Bumgarner.
Truth is, there’s nothing manufactured on either side of the equation. Not Syndergaard’s 102-mph four-seamer, the hardest-thrown pitch among major league starters, or Bumgarner’s history as October monster. The lefthander has a 0.60 ERA on the road in the postseason, which answers any questions about his nerves: Bumgarner figures to be as merciless as a cyborg.
Both teams are heading toward a full-force, head-on collision: The San Francisco Giants won their final four games to squeeze out the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild-card spot. And the New York Mets, riding a six-week hot streak, had the majors’ best record after Aug. 20. They never got close to the Nationals, but at least Syndergaard will have the luxury of home-field advantage.
You won’t have to guess about the noise level from Flushing — think Game 3 of last year’s World Series, when Thor beat the Royals and gave the Mets a flicker of hope, and multiply it by, oh, a hundred. With a one-game, win-or-else scenario, every inning, even every pitch, will feel like its own apocalypse. It’s the ultimate adrenaline rush, thrilling and tortuous both. Welcome to the best drama money can buy, thanks to these two pitchers.
Syndergaard and Bumgarner insist they’re not squaring off against each other; their respective targets are the hitters. Technically true. Bumgarner will make it his business to destroy the Mets’ left-handed threats such as Lucas Duda and Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce. Syndergaard will have his hands full keeping the Giants’ baserunners from running wild.
Those are both valid concerns. But they’re dwarfed by the sheer enormity of two great hurlers going one-on-one, both capable of putting on an historic show. Runs will be at a premium. Rallies will be short and desperate. This game might come down to who does a better job of manufacturing offense.
If so, the Giants could have the edge. According to ESPN’s research, the Mets took the extra base in 34 percent of opportunities, the lowest in baseball. With a runner on first, the Mets’ scored on a double just 30 percent of the time, also the industry’s worst.
More? The Mets had 102 hits (lowest in the majors), only 35 sacrifice bunts (14th in the NL) and were the NL’s least efficient offense with a runner on third and less than two outs.
None of the metrics are shocking to anyone who’s watched the Mets all year. The antidote to all their shortcomings has been the record-setting blizzard of home runs this summer, 218 in all, including 112 at home — history-making in itself.
But Yoenis Cespedes, their resident Schwarzenegger, is in a deep slump with only one homer in his last 80 at-bats while batting just .203. The Mets are similarly concerned about Bumgarner’s reputation for staying away from the middle of the plate. He allowed exactly one home run per nine innings while striking out 10 this season. And forget about the regular season, it’s Bumgarner’s October numbers that should make the Mets uncomfortable.
He’s one of 13 pitchers in major league history to throw a shutout on the road in a winner-take-all setting, which he did in 2014 against the Pirates. And if you count Friday’s victory over the Dodgers, which was a quasi-playoff game in itself considering the Giants were trying told to hold off the Cardinals, Bumgarner is indeed on a roll.
He kept LA to three runs over 7 innings — one walk, five strikeouts, no home runs. When asked what makes him so successful when the stakes are so high, Bumgarner just smiled and said, “I wish I had an answer for you.”
Luckily for the Mets, Syndergaard is just as composed and self-contained. He doesn’t have Bumgarner’s résumé, but the Mets have grown to appreciate his warrior ethos. It’s an unmistakable vibe that Matt Harvey once gave off in 2013: the universe is mine.
“Noah Syndergaard believes in Noah Syndergaard, make no mistake about it,” Terry Collins said. “You can call it anything you want. Great players have egos. They think they’re better than you and a lot of nights they are because they’re [that] talented.”
Of course, Syndergaard won’t openly advertise such swag. Like Bumgarner, he parses his words carefully. Thor instead lets his arm and dead-eye stare broadcast the message. But there’s no doubt Syndergaard has been dying for a moment like this, after the Mets have lost one starter after another — from Harvey to Jacob deGrom to Steven Matz — and now turn to the 24-year-old Terminator as their savior.
Syndergaard wants this to come down to him and Bumgarner because that’s October’s most compelling equation. Ace against ace. Torture or headrush? Both, really. What a gift.
Klapisch writes for the Bergen County Register, part of the Paste BN Network